The British comedian is producing his own "interpretation" of classic fairytales, 'Russell Brand's Trickster Tales', which will be illustrated by Chris Riddell.

Russell previewed an extract from the first book, an adaptation of 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' in a video announcement.

He read: "Once upon a time, long ago, in a time that seemed to those present, exactly like now, except their teeth weren't so clean and more things were wooden, there was a town called Hamelin..."

The 'Despicable Me 2' star went on to explain more about his literary project.

He added: "I know you've already heard of that. And you might think, 'Well, that isn't your story'. Yeah, I know, I've done a different version of it.

"It's the first of series called 'Russell Brand's Trickster Tales', where I do interpretations of fairy stories and folk tales, believing them to be the code to unlock aspects of our consciousness and to affect and impact the way we see the world.

"Once we start changing the way children see the world... we can do all sorts of stuff."

In the video, the 38-year-old star also showed off accompanying illustrations of rats.

Russell has previously released two autobiographies, a tome about his passion for soccer, 'Irons in the Fire', and is also working on a book about his views on ecology, rioting, and "the total mistrust of politicians".